Imaging Genetics

Imaging genetics refers to the use of anatomical or physiological imaging technologies as phenotypic assays to evaluate genetic variation. Scientists that first used the term imaging genetics were interested in how genes influence psychopathology and used functional neuroimaging to investigate genes that are expressed in the brain (neuroimaging genetics).

Imaging genetics uses research approach in which genetic information and fMRI data in the same subjects are combined to define neuro-mechanisms linked to genetic variation. With the images and genetic information, it can be determined how individual differences in single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, lead to differences in brain wiring structure, and intellectual function. Imaging genetics allows the direct observation of the link between genes and brain activity in which the overall idea is that common variants in SNPs lead to common diseases. A neuroimaging phenotype is attractive because it is closer to the biology of genetic function than illnesses or cognitive phenotypes.

The University of California, Irvine hosts an annual conference in January called the International Imaging Genetics Conference. This international symposium is held to assess the state of the art in the various established fields of genetics and imaging, and to facilitate the transdisciplinary fusion needed to optimize the development of the emerging field of Imaging Genetics. Upcoming conference details and the archives of past conferences can be found at www.imaginggenetics.uci.edu.